A CALLOUS son who tried to kill his badly-injured mother by turning off the central heating was jailed for more than 10 years today.

Stephen Office, 49, found his mother Margaret, 74, lying on the landing of the home they shared in North Shields, North Tyneside.

Instead of alerting emergency services to his mother’s plight he turned down the central heating and left her, hoping she would die.

As she lay freezing on the landing for two days, the jobless alcoholic sat in the lounge watching television and drinking cheap cider at their home in St Stephen’s Way, Percy Main, North Shields, North Tyneside.

He would step over his mother to go to the toilet and to bed, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Mrs Office, who got up each morning at 4am to go and work as a cleaner at a local Co-op store, was described in court as a "clean and immaculate nice old woman“.

Friends became concerned for the widow, who was also known as Stella, after she had not been seen at work for a couple of days and on the afternoon of December 5, 2007 went to see if she was all right.

Office, who answered the door, said his mother was upstairs but the friend could see her lying on the landing in her night-dress and alerted emergency services.

"The defendant was observed plugging the telephone socket back in,” prosecutor Robert Woodcock QC said.

"He told her that he took it out so that he could watch the television in peace.”

When the paramedics arrived they noticed that the two-bedroom terraced house was freezing and they asked Office how long his mother had been lying there.

He replied: "I am not sure. I’ve not seen her since 9am this morning. I have been in the living room.”

Mr Woodcock added: ``It would have been quite impossible for anyone to move from one room to another without seeing someone lying on the floor.

"This defendant told one of the paramedics that he had not seen her all day and later said he had seen her at 9am and she seemed okay.

"He said he had been in the living room drinking a few cans.”

As paramedics attended to his mother, Mr Woodcock said Office appeared "quite clearly unconcerned“ and said his mother would get up by herself.

At hospital it was discovered she had fractured her spine.

Questioned by a nurse about when she fell, Mrs Office replied: "I have not done it today. It was three days ago. He just stepped over me to go to the toilet and go to bed.”

The mother-of-three never recovered and died on December 19 from her injuries.

Mr Woodcock said that in the weeks before Mrs Office’s death there had been a deterioration in their relationship - with mother and son rowing over money.

"The defendant was dependant on his mother for money and arguments were about money,” the prosecutor said.

Office also knew that he would benefit from a share of his mother’s will and was expecting to receive between £10,000 and £12,000 upon her death, Mr Woodcock said, although the prosecution accepted money was not the motivation for Office’s actions.

During police interviews Office attempted to say that he had been acting out of mercy and had turned off the heating to allow her to die "painlessly“. James Goss QC, defending, said that in sobriety Office deeply regretted his actions.

"His family has cut him off. He was a lonely man then and he will be a lonely man for a long time.

"He has to live with the guilt for what he has done.”

At an earlier hearing Office had admitted attempted murder.

Jailing Office for 10 and a half years, Judge John Milford QC said: "Morally, if not legally, you had a duty to seek help for your mother. You did no such thing.

"You left her lying there; indeed you went further than that. In order to hasten the end of her life you turned off the central heating.

"As a result of your actions your mother lay there for more than 30 hours getting colder and colder.

"It must have been an appalling way for her to spend some of the last days of her life.

"To know that the son she had cherished throughout his life was ignoring her plight, drinking cider, watching television and clearly hoping she would die.”

The judge added: "She was a proud woman and everyone speaks of her very highly. Her whole life was in sharp contrast to the wasted years of yours.”